Reinforced concrete beam support



July 17, 1956 w. c. MALSBURY ET AL 2,754,674

REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAM SUPPORT Filed March 2, 1953 Fig.

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United States Patent REINFORCED CONCRETE BEAM SUPPORT William C. Malsbury and William B. Malsbury, Crystal Springs, and Kenneth C. Malsbury, Summit, Miss.

Application March 2, 1953, Serial No. 339,752

1 Claim. (CI. 72-61) This invention relates to a supporting beam for highways, airport runways, and other similar constructions.

In the building and construction of roads and airport runways, reinforced concrete slabs of various thicknesses are used. Allowances for expansion and contraction of the slabs are essential and, accordingly, expansion joints are usually provided. The reinforcing steel at the expansion joints is subjected to great shearing stress due to the action of heavy trucks and other mobile equipment passing thereover. Further, the contraction and expansion due to varying temperatures tends to loosen the bond of concrete and steel at these joints. It is therefore the primary object of this invention to provide a support for reinforced concrete slabs at their expansion joints so as to insure a longer life for road beds and the like.

A further object of this invention is to adequately reinforce a concrete support beam against the shearing stress exerted at the expansion joints of the supported concrete slabs, the reinforcement including means for suitably supporting sinusoidal reinforcing rods.

In the use of reinforcing rods which sinuate about the neutral axis of a beam, it is to be understood that when subjected to a load condition a portion of the rod will be under tension while another portion of the rod is under compression. The construction of this reinforcing slab features means for supporting reinforcing rods in a manner permitting them to sinuate about the neutral axis while also supporting reinforcing rods adjacent the portions subjected to the greatest tension and compression.

Still further objects of the invention reside in the provision of a supporting beam for highway, bridge, or airport runway construction that is strong and durable, simple in construction and manufacture, capable of being easily produced due to the configuration of the reinforcing elements at a relatively low cost.

These, together with the various ancillary objects and features of the invention which will become apparent as the following description proceeds, are attained by this reinforced concrete beam support, a preferred embodiment together with various employments thereof being illustrated in the accompanying drawings, by way of example only, wherein:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a portion of the beam supporting showing the arrangement of the reinforcing means in greatest detail;

Figure 2 is a sectional detail view showing the beam support placed on a roadway bed or airport runway supporting the reinforced concrete slabs used as the pavement of the road or runway; and,

Figure 3 is a sectional view illustrating the beam support resting on a bridge abutment so as to provide a sup porting structure for the pavement of the bridge.

With continuing reference of the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals designate similar parts throughout the various views, reference numeral generally designates the reinforce concrete beam sup- 2,754,674 Patented July 17, 1956 port comprising the present invention which is adapted to be used for supporting the concrete slabs forming the pavement as used in roads or airport runways and like structures. The reinforcement for the beam 10 includes a plurality of longitudinally spaced base plates 12 formed of concrete. Embedded in the concrete base plate or brick 12 is the end 14 of a vertical support rod 16, the end 14 being bent perpendicularly to the vertically extending portions of the support rod 16. The upper end of the support rod 16 is offset by means of a bend 18 normal to the support rod. A vertical portion 20 is integral with the bend 18 and an arcuate return bend 22 is integrally formed with the vertical portion 20.

Supported by the base plates 12 is a longitudinally extending reinforcing rod 24 preferably triangular in crosssection. Also supported by the arcuate portion 22 is an upper longitudinally extending reinforcing rod 26 similar in shape to that of the reinforcing rod 24. It is to be noted that when the support slab 10 is subjected to any bending strain the rods 24 will reinforce the portion of the beam under approximately the greatest tension while the rods 26 will support the beam at a location where there is the greatest compression. The offset bends 18 and 22 are of such size as to adequately support the reinforcing rods 26 and one of the sinusoidal reinforcing rods 28 and 30. The sinusoidal reinforcing rods 28 and 30 sinuate about the neutral axis of the beam 10 and the rod 30 lags the rod 28 by in its sinuating course. One of the sinuating reinforcing rods 28 and 30 is supported on the bend 18 of a vertical supporting rod 16 and is tied thereto by a suitable wire 32. Further, at the points where the reinforcing bars 28 and 30 cross each other they are tied as indicated at 34.

Referring now to Figure 2, it will be seen that this device is employed in supporting the concrete slabs 36 of a road or airport runway by the beams 10 which extend perpendicularly to the expansion joints of the slabs 36. Further, as is shown in Figure 3, the support rods 10 can readily be used to support the surfacing slabs of a bridge or pier, the beam 10 resting on the bridge abutment or pier support 38 and held in place by angular steel plates 40.

Since from the foregoing, the construction and advantages of this concrete beam support are readily apparent, further description is believed to be unnecessary.

However, since numerous modifications will readily occur to those skilled in the art after a consideration of the foregoing specification and accompanying drawings, it is not intended to limit the invention to the precise embodiment shown and described, but all suitable modifications and equivalents may be readily resorted to which fall within the scope of the appended claim.

What is claimed as new is as follows:

A reinforced concrete beam comprising a plurality of spaced base plates embedded at the bottom of said beam, a support rod having a pedestal portion embedded in each of said base plates and extending vertically therefrom in vertical alignment with each other, each of said support rods having a plurality of rod supporting shoulders at its upper end, a first reinforcing rod extending longitudinally of said beam and directly supported on said plurality of base plates, a second reinforcing rod in vertically spaced parallel relationship to said first rod and supported at spaced points on the upper shoulders of said supporting rods, a pair of crossing sinuous rods tied together at their crossing points to form a series of spaced loops, certain of the lower loop rods being tied to the corresponding vertical support rod and certain of the upper loop rods being supported on a lower shoulder of the corresponding support rod and tied thereto.

(References on following page) References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Pierson Jan. 16, 1906 Stragiotti Apr. 12, 1910 5 Widmer Dec. 25, 1917 Gelder Oct. 25, 1927 Macomber May 15, 1928 4 Robinson Dec. 17, 1929 Mathews May 23, 1939 Emigholz Aug. 22, 1939 FOREIGN PATENTS Great Britain Apr. 10, 1912 Great Britain May 23, 1949 

